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The National (Scotland)
The National (Scotland)
Sport
Robbie Hanratty

Celtic outcast facing Parkhead return conundrum as gametime struggles continue

Celtic outcast Gustaf Lagerbielke has endured a whirlwind 16 months. 

Brendan Rodgers’ side paid £3million to sign the highly-rated centre-back from Elfsborg during the 2023 summer transfer window. 

But life at the Scottish Premiership champions hasn’t pan out how he would’ve anticipated.

Lagerbielke only made 10 first team appearances in all competitions, even spending some matchday’s totally excluded from the selected squad. 

He was unable to leave the club in January due to injuries but continued to play a peripheral role.

The Sollentuna FK academy graduate made three substitute outings on Celtic’s recent USA pre-season tour and then was allowed to join FC Twente on-loan until the end of the 2024-25 season.

The Netherlands outfit do have an option to buy, however it remains to see whether they will trigger it since Lagerbielke has only featured six times for the Dutch side, with the 24-year-old, again, struggling to cement his place in the starting XI.


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In a recent interview with Fotbollskanalen, Lagerbielke discussed his current situation and the possibility of still having a future at Celtic.

He said: “It is a straight loan until the summer. Then there is always the possibility that I will be bought. So far it’s felt very good there so we’ll see how it goes forward.

“There is always that (chance of going back to Celtic). I still have a contract there. It’s not out of the question at all. Then I’ll have to see closer to the end of the season what happens with everything. But it’s a fantastic club."

(Image: SNS Group) Despite Celtic handing the Swede a bumper five-year contract, Rodgers’ comments this summer all-but suggested that he was happy to see the defender move on in search of regular game time. 

“It just all depends," the Celtic manager said in July. "Gus has shown a terrific attitude. He didn’t get so much game time last season but he’s got his head down.

“He had the chance to go on loan in January, but we needed to keep him due to the injuries we had in that position. But’s he’s worked very hard over pre-season and we’ll see what happens. 

“You see the players are happy and working well, but all the players want to play. If they can’t get the game time with us, they may look elsewhere. In this moment Gus is working very hard and when he is asked, he comes in and does well.”

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